In the last week or so of my stay in Africa, there were two topics that arose that caused some serious thought for me:
1) There are estimates that anywhere from 20,000-100,000 people will be trafficked into South Africa for the World Cup next year. There is no saying who these people will be: man or woman, young or old. Many of them will have been tricked into their trade, having been told a lie about a job in another country or a chance to play soccer only to find that there is no opportunity and their survival depends on doing what they are told. Others will have been sold into the trade by their families for just the money to buy bread. On top of this, the nation of South Africa is considering legalizing prostitution. This will nicely benefit the country financially as the government will be able to tax the prostitution that occurs, but it will also encourage the human trafficking that is going to occur and make it harder for the police to make raids where there is human trafficking occurring.
It is hard to imagine that this is all even possible. There are so many men, women, boys, and girls all over the world who are modern day slaves, both in physical labor and in sexual trades. They have been taken advantage of because of their poverty, tricked or sold in the hopes of money, food, and something more. It is bad enough that this is happening behind the scenes, but for it to so openly happen at an international event like the World Cup is absolutely ridiculous and appalling. It makes me wonder what our world is coming to and what is next, it makes me seriously consider my support for the World Cup events next year, and it makes me pray.
2) Apartheid may be gone, but the separation of people in South Africa is not. I vaguely remember hearing about Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid when I was younger so I realize that the road to recovery has not been as long in South Africa as it has been in the US. I am also not going to be so naive as to say that we have fixed everything in the US: that there is no longer racism and that there is no separation of the races. However, I was shocked when my friend explained to me the set up of the town of 150,000 that she lives in in South Africa. She explained to me that there is the white area, the colored settlement, and the black settlement. There is a small colored settlement kind of in the middle of the white area, but that wasn't what it was meant for, it just became that. There is still a pretty full separation of the races, with everyone living in the same areas as before apartheid ended.
I had just assumed that since apartheid was over, the people would have mixed more and it would have looked more like the suburbs I grew up in. I never realized how hard it is to break off some of the lies that have been engrained in the minds of the people over generations. After talking with some of the people I know from South Africa, I found out that it is just this emerging generation that is really fully comfortable with the end of apartheid, not seeing the color of the skin but the character of the person. It is a long road to the end of racism, with many nations traveling down it at different levels. I was surprised when I heard of the state of the racial separation in South Africa, but it also gives me a sense of hope as I realize that we have come a long way in the United States and we are on the right path.
We have to be careful not to limit our worldview to what we see in our own country without opening our eyes to the big world that there is out there. There are things happening all over the world that make us think and pray; they involve the lives of people and they break our hearts. There is also hope out there, helping us see what can be as well as the steps our own nation has taken forward. There is so much love, heartache, hope, and hurting in the world that we can share in if we just open our eyes to see what is there.
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